"SAN JOSE -- Anticipating a cleanup cost estimated as high as $1.6 billion, local governments from across California made their final legal pitch Monday to hold the paint industry accountable for allegedly threatening children's health by spreading toxic lead paint through tens of thousands of homes."

"The industry countered by accusing public officials of a misguided smear campaign against paint manufacturers, arguing that the public health threat from lead paint has been wiped away for years.

The competing portraits ended a trial that began in July in a 13-year-old legal battle over the paint industry's role in exposing residents across California to dangerous levels of lead paint. Lawyers for 10 cities and counties, many of them in the Bay Area, urged a Santa Clara County judge to find that the powerful paint industry caused a "public nuisance" by selling lead paint for decades before the government banned the metal in 1978."